The present invention relates to an information indicating device for a camera, particularly a single lens reflex camera with a built-in flash unit.
Recently, it has become commonplace to build a flash unit into a lens shutter camera for the sake of portability.
Although it is also desired to build a flash unit into a single lens reflex camera, this has not been easy to accomplish in the single lens reflex camera because in the case of the single lens reflex camera a flash unit with a large guide number is needed because of the large variety of photography conditions involved. Furthermore, it is necessary to indicate information relative to flash photography such as the flash light emission confirmation as well as the completion of the change over into the flash mode to enable operability.
Recently, it has become more practical to build the flash unit into the single lens reflex camera because of the availability of a compact flash unit with a large guide number. This is due to the realization of condensers with special shapes, compact xenon tubes and further due to the development of compound components such as thyristers. Nevertheless, it is still difficult to provide a single lens reflex camera with a built-in flash unit because of the difficulty involved in indicating in the view finder information regarding the condition of the flash unit such as the completion of the change over into the flash mode.
This difficulty arises because the source of the information is distant from the view finder optics of the camera or in the case of the single lens reflex camera the mirror is raised so as to interrupt the view finder light path during film exposure.
An object of the present invention is to provide an information indicating device for a single lens reflex camera with a built-in flash unit free from the above-mentioned shortcomings and capable of indicating in the view finder information relative to the flash unit such as the completion of the change over into the flash mode.